Tuesday, 16 April 2013

Scientists Officially Link Processed Foods To Autoimmune Disease

The modern diet of
processed foods, takeaways and microwave meals could be to blame for a sharp
increase in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, including alopecia,
asthma and eczema.

A team of scientists
from Yale University in the U.S and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, in Germany, say junk food
diets could be partly to blame.

'This study is the first to indicate that excess refined and processed salt may
be one of the environmental factors driving the increased incidence of
autoimmune diseases,' they said.

Junk foods at fast food restaurants as well as processed foods at grocery
retailers represent the largest sources of sodium intake from refined salts.

The Canadian Medical Association Journal sent out an international team of researchers to compare
the salt content of 2,124 items from fast food establishments such as Burger
King, Domino's Pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Subway.
They found that the average salt content varied between companies and between
the same products sold in different countries.

U.S. fast foods are often more than twice as salt-laden as those of other
countries. While government-led public health campaigns and legislation efforts
have reduced refined salt levels in many countries, the U.S. government has
been reluctant to press the issue. That’s left fast-food companies free to go
salt crazy, says Norm Campbell, M.D., one of the study authors and a blood-pressure
specialist at the University of Calgary.Many low-fat foods rely
on salt--and lots of it--for their flavor. One packet of KFC’s Marzetti Light
Italian Dressing might only have 15 calories and 0.5 grams fat, but it also has
510 mg sodium--about 1.5 times as much as one Original Recipe chicken
drumstick. (Feel like you’re having too much of a good thing? You probably are.Bread is the No. 1 source
of refined salt consumption in the American diet, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. Just one 6-inch Roasted Garlic loaf from
Subway--just the bread, no meat, no cheeses, no nothing--has 1,260 mg sodium,
about as much as 14 strips of bacon.

How Refined
Salt Causes Autoimmune Disease

The team from Yale University studied the role of T helper cells in the body.
These activate and 'help' other cells to fight dangerous pathogens such as
bacteria or viruses and battle infections.

Previous research
suggests that a subset of these cells - known as Th17 cells - also play an
important role in the development of autoimmune diseases. In the latest study,
scientists discovered that exposing these cells in a lab to a table salt
solution made them act more 'aggressively.'They found that mice fed
a diet high in refined salts saw a dramatic increase in the number of Th17
cells in their nervous systems that promoted inflammation. They were also more
likely to develop a severe form of a disease associated with multiple sclerosis
in humans.The scientists then
conducted a closer examination of these effects at a molecular level.Laboratory tests revealed
that salt exposure increased the levels of cytokines released by Th17 cells 10
times more than usual. Cytokines are proteins used to pass messages between
cells.Study co-author Ralf
Linker, from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, said: 'These findings are an
important contribution to the understanding of multiple sclerosis and may offer
new targets for a better treatment of the disease, for which at present there
is no cure.'It develops when the immune
system mistakes the myelin that surrounds the nerve fibres in the brain and
spinal cord for a foreign body. It strips the myelin off
the nerves fibres, which disrupts messages passed between the brain and body
causing problems with speech, vision and balance.Another of the study's
authors, Professor David Hafler, from Yale University, said that nature had
clearly not intended for the immune system to attack its host body, so he
expected that an external factor was playing a part.He said: 'These are not
diseases of bad genes alone or diseases caused by the environment, but diseases
of a bad interaction between genes and the environment.'Humans were genetically
selected for conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, where there was no salt. It's
one of the reasons that having a particular gene may make African Americans much more sensitive to salt.'Today, Western diets all
have high salt content and that has led to increase in hypertension and perhaps
autoimmune disease as well.'The team next plan to
study the role that Th17 cells play in autoimmune conditions that affect the
skin.'It would be interesting
to find out if patients with psoriasis can alleviate their symptoms by reducing
their salt intake,' they said.'However, the development
of autoimmune diseases is a very complex process which depends on many genetic
and environmental factors.'

Stick to Good
Salts

Refined, processed and bleached salts are the problem. Salt is critical to our health
and is the most readily available nonmetallic mineral in the world. Our bodies
are not designed to processed refined sodium chloride since it has no
nutritional value. However, when a salt is filled with dozens of minerals such
as in rose-coloured crystals of Himalayan rock salt or the grey texture of
Celtic salt, our bodies benefit tremendously for their incorporation into our
diet.

"These mineral salts are identical to the elements of which our bodies
have been built and were originally found in the primal ocean from where life
originated," argues Dr Barbara Hendel, researcher and co-author of Water
& Salt, The Essence of Life. "We have salty tears and salty
perspiration. The chemical and mineral composition of our blood and body fluids
are similar to sea water. From the beginning of life, as unborn babies, we are
encased in a sack of salty fluid."

"In water, salt dissolves into mineral ions," explains Dr Hendel.
"These conduct electrical nerve impulses that drive muscle movement and
thought processes. Just the simple act of drinking a glass of water requires
millions of instructions that come from mineral ions. They're also needed to
balance PH levels in the body."Mineral salts, she says,
are healthy because they give your body the variety of mineral ions needed to
balance its functions, remain healthy and heal. These healing properties have
long been recognised in central Europe. At Wieliczka in Poland, a hospital has
been carved in a salt mountain. Asthmatics and patients with lung disease and
allergies find that breathing air in the saline underground chambers helps
improve symptoms in 90 per cent of cases. Dr Hendel believes too
few minerals, rather than too much salt, may be to blame for health problems.
It's a view that is echoed by other academics such as David McCarron, of Oregon
Health Sciences University in the US. He says salt has always
been part of the human diet, but what has changed is the mineral content of our
food. Instead of eating food high in minerals, such as nuts, fruit and
vegetables, people are filling themselves up with "mineral empty"
processed food and fizzy drinks.

Study Source:
This is the result of a study conducted by Dr. Markus Kleinewietfeld, Prof.
David Hafler (both Yale University, New Haven and the Broad Institute of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, and Harvard University, USA), PD
Dr. Ralf Linker (Dept. of Neurology, University Hospital Erlangen), Professor
Jens Titze (Vanderbilt University and Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat
Erlangen-Nurnberg, FAU, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) and Professor Dominik
N. Muller (Experimental and Clinical Research Center, ECRC, a joint cooperation
between the Max-Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine, MDC, Berlin, and the
Charite -- Universitatsmedizin Berlin and FAU) (Nature, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature11868)*.
In autoimmune diseases, the immune system attacks healthy tissue instead of
fighting pathogens.

April McCarthy is a community journalist playing
an active role reporting and analyzing world events to advance our health and
eco-friendly initiatives.

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